The Plot of the Phantom

Great personal stroll down somebody else's memory lane. I recommend reading the announcement blog post before playing, for context. Especially near the ending it helps clarify which parts of the game were designed by the 14-year old and which by the 55-year old. It is an intriguing collaboration, and I'm glad the author followed through with it.

The game has many rooms ((Spoiler - click to show)some 33 -- my map coming soon), but don't be fooled by this. They are even more sparsely implemented than e.g. in Bronze. Many rooms serve only to lead to others, and those that contain sonething to advance the game only contain one thing: either a puzzle or a solution. Much of what is in the room descriptions cannot be examined further.

The puzzles are easy but varied. At first I worried about the lack of hints but that turned out to be fine. The plot barely exists other than as the meta-plot about the game's unique creation story. I'm tempted to give it four stars for that alone, but judged in isolation this game deserves three stars. A more detailed world model would have gotten it one more.

This is a game you play to feel empathy with the author, not because of its excellence standing alone.